Cheeky Visitors

Thought i would just post a couple of pics of a cheeky little visitor that we had to day. This little squirrel decided that he was hungry and so stopped by for lunch. As also did a couple of starlings that quite like the mealworms that are left out on the birdstand.

A Spring Day Out

The Sunday just gone the wife and I decided to take a little walk out to a local beauty spot quite close to where we live. This place is called Portchester Castle and is withing a 10 minute walk from the house. It's situated right on the coast and was at some time a Roman Fort, probably from around the 3rd century. However it's better known a  Medieval Castle from the late 11th century.

It was such a beautiful day, cold, but the sun shone and the birds and other animals were all out in force. Mind you an ulterior motive for the walk was to try out my new camera lens again and try to capture a few special shots. Not sure I really succeeded but I thought I would share them with you.

These were of a cheeky crow that decided he wasn't going to do anything that i wanted him to do, like fly or whatever. However eventually it did decide to take off and glide a few short yards. Success of some sort.







The castle grounds looked lovely in the sunlight and I managed to capture a couple of shots of some early daffodils.





All in all a nice walk and a couple of nice shots to add to my album. I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed the walk and the taking of them.

Camera Lens

It might be worth noting to anyone that is reading the blogs of mine that all the recnt photos have been taken with a couple of new lenses. I wanted to copy a few pics but was thwarted by the fact they were in an album and i was unable to remove the pages. So, the only way to take a photo of a photo. not having the necessary macro lens, maybe because they start at around £350 I went to the local Jessop's for advice. The guy there sold me a Tamron 80 - 300mm with a macro facility, (bargain at £99) and I managed to get a wide angle / macro converter off Ebay for £13.99. Now I'm ready to experiment and the last two blogs are the first reulsts. Any comments would be appreciated.

It's probably obvious to any real photographers out there that i am very much the beginner.

Spring Buds

I thought that I would share with you the Magnolia tree in my back garden that is starting to show its colours for the spring. Lovely pink flowers are about to burst out and turn a rather bare tree into a riot of flowers and blooms.

In full bloom this tree is magnifcent and will last throughtout the whole of the summer, flowering as much as three times.

An afternoon out

The other day was such a nice bright day that the wife and I, along with the brother in law decided to visit a place called "The Witterings". Surprisingly enough this location is only about 15 miles away and we have never visited it in the 15 years we have lived down south. Maybe because it's an exceedingly popular sandy beach and in the summer you will find thousands of day trippers, campers and what not trying to get to it. It's alledgely the best bit of sandy beach in the south.

The day was very cold so you needed to wrap up warm, so, hats and coats on and half an hour later we arrived., parked up the car in a pretty much deserted car park, (still had to pay a £1 though) and went for a walk on the beach.

Wow, was one adjective you could use. Miles of sandy beach, hardly anybody on it except a few people and their dogs and the rest was all ours. Actually, it was a very pleasant walk. Out of the wind it was quite warm but not worth the risk of unbuttoning those coats. One gust of that icy and you were likely to freeze your proverbials off.                                                                                          

We walked for about a mile and a half and then got up onto the top and walked back through the camping car parks. As we walked we could hear a loud and persistent honking noise. Lots of geese. Over to our left in a field were perhaps a couple of thousand of these geese, wild and obviously wintering over here. I don't know what sort because as we walked along the road they all took off. Quite a sight to see all these birds up in the air. Unfortunately the lens on my camera was only a 300mm and so couldn't quite bring them close to view properly. An exciting couple of minutes though.

 

Having now got a bit cold it was time to search out a hot coffee, so, off we went in the car to the next beach where we knew a cafe would be open. This place is Hayling Island. Not a lot there except a shingle beach, a bit of a run down amusement park and a solitary cafe. still, it was March and people were painting their various businesses ready for the summer season. The coffee break was pretty quick, mainly because the coffee was pretty awful, cheap and instant, so we had a quick walk across the shingle and then in the car for the ride home.

All in all, a pleasant afternoon. Maybe now the weather is getting better we should have a few more of these afternoons out. I'l;l keep you posted.

New Friends

Over the last couple of weeks I made a decision to find some new friends through the internet. I have always enjoyed writing to penpals and over the years I have had quite a few. One or two  still write to even after 20 years.

Anyway, I now have a friend from the Ukraine, one from Jamaica and another from Uganda. Funny enough they are all female, and no, I didn't contact them, they contacted me. I have to say that as Elena, who lives in the Ukraine is only 24yrs, younger than my daughter. However she is a brightly bubbly young lady and we are getting on famously. Her dad is a miner, a job that I once did and Elena works in a museum.

Most evenings I spend an hour writing emails to all of them, exchanging views and comments about each others cultures. I had forgotten how much fun it was.

Last week also saw a major shift in mine and the wife's situation as Marlene was signed off from the hospital. Yeah, no more treatment. Just one more operation, probably about June for some reconstruction and we can finally get on with our lives. Let's hope that we get some sunny weather to enable to get out on the bike and enjoy a few rides.

Cry for Help

I am a in bit of a quandry. Just before Christmas my elderly next door neighbour had her daughter move in with her. Now Poppy (real name) is 84 so her daughter must be about 60 and what a pain she has turned out to be. Not only did she move in but she brought nine (9) cats with her. It looks as if she picks up strays etc. Anyway, the gardens around here are reasonable enough but not to support 9 cats so of course they are doing their business in everybody else's gardens including mine. They have already dug up the flower beds and it's getting to be a bit of a pain. Anybody got any ideas as to how we can resolve this. We did try to speak to the daughter but she was quite rude and then walked off so no joy there.

RSPCA nor the council want to know as they say provided the cats are not ill treated or there is no big smell getting into our house they have no power to act. I'm thinking of getting one of those water guns. I don't want to hurt the cats but we also have a cat, a rather small on who is now being bullied by these much bigger males ans hardly goes out anymore.

Suggestions welcome guys

Kevin

New Addition

The new year has given us a very auspicious start with the birth of a new grandson, Logan Jude, born at 11:59pm on 1st January 2011. Just managed to creep in on the first day. Pics to follow when I get them as unfortunately parents and baby live a little too far away. Looking forward to visiting next weekend.

New Years Party

Well there's no doubt that 2011 has started in the Jones household with a bang. Last nights party was great fun with friends and family around us. This was the first time that a New Year has really been celebrated in this house as last year we had only just moved in and we went to friends.

This year was going to be different we decided as we had so many friends to thank for the wonderous support that they have given us over the last 10 months with Marlene's illness. So we invited them all and other than one couple who were unable to make it, all 16 turned up, on time and bearing wonderous gifts, such as a bottle of white and a bottle of red. Wine of course.

We let the fireworks off at about 10:30pm so that we could enjoy ours before the main celebration and also set off about 5 chinese lanterns. It was a little chilly outside and the air wasn't heating enough to make them float, hmm, my portable gas blowlamp soon sorted that and all the lanterns rose to quite a few hundred feet. Pity I didn't take any pics but I was too busy.


Later on, at 12 midnight there were fireworks and chinese lanterns going everywhere. At one stage we counted 19 lanterns in our patch of sky. A truly wonderful sight.

Just before everyone went home, it was time to sit and chat over a coffee. A few pics were taken but not many. Andrew, a friend complained that his head was getting cold as his hair was disappearing, so Marlene lent him hers, what a laugh, sorry Andrew, blond hair doesn't suit you.

 What can one say.

 
Anyway, the New Years resolution is to try and post on a more regular basis and include some fun as well as interesting pics. Happy New Year to all that read this.